Alright, I fish for steelhead and am a beginner at it. I was looking at a website and they had a pattern called the dvb or domestic violence bunny. It looks simple, but I can't figure out how to tie it. Could you possibly give me instructions. Thanks

morphius: You are correct that fly looks fairly simple to tie, but be careful with the proportions, look at the picture carefully to get it correct. It looks to me to be tied on a Dai-Riki 899 style hook in a size 2-6. Here is how I would tie it. First wrap the hook shank with black thread 6/0 then you have a choice whether or not to wrap the shank with some lead substitute. If you do I would probably use .020 to .025 and wrap with 10 wraps be careful not to crowd the eye. Next grab a clump of black marabou and tie in at the rear making the marabou roughly the length of the hook. Then wrap forward tying the remaining marabou to the hook. Then take your thread back to the rear. Next cover the hook shank with the black/blue light bright dubbing being careful to leave room at the eye. I have not used the light bright dubbing so I can't say whether you can just dub the thread or will need a dubbing loop. If you will need a dubbing loop and don't know how to do that, I would suggest you get on YouTube and do a search for dubbing loops, there are videos that will show you the procedure. Next tie in the blue rabbit wing, note that it doesn't go all the way to the end of the marabou (looks like maybe half way back), leave room at the eye. Finally take a black schlappen feather, strip off the fuzz at the end and cut the stem so you have maybe an 1/8" to tie in to the hook right where you tied in the rabbit wing. Then wrap the feather forward using the opposite hand to brush the feathers back as you wrap, tie down and whip finish and cement the head. Good luck!

McNerney mentioned it a few times. Leave room at the eye. This is an easy fly to crowd the eye with materials.

This is more of a personal preference. Due to the size of the fly and the bulk of the materials, I would use Danville Flat Waxed Nylon thread instead of 6/0 thread. Danville Flat Waxed Nylon thread is much stronger than 6/0, and it lays down flat. It holds down more bulk with less wraps. It doesn't bulk up like other heavy threads on the market.

McNerney gave a perfect description of how to tie that fly, but I'll add in some tips and the reasoning behind them.

I'll second MP's recommendation that you make sure to leave space at the eye. This is especially important on salmon hooks with the "U" shaped eye, because its so easy for your thread wraps to keep advancing forward until the hole for your tippet disappears. This means that while you want to tie down the marabou feather all the way along the hook shank so that you have a nice even cylindrical body, cut it off short so you have room to tie in that bulky rabbit strip. Also on the dubbing, you can stop a bit short of the eye as well, because the schlappen will fully cover any gap you might leave.

I second the recommendation of Danville's flat-waxed nylon. I love the stuff because its strong, lays down flat, and stretches very noticeably before it breaks. I think I use it on all flies size 6 or larger.

That general layout of that fly is wonderfully fishy and should not be thought of just as a steelhead fly. You could tie it with white tail and body with olive zonker and hackle and have a baby bass, golden-yellow tail and body with brown zonker and hackle and have a baby brown trout, etc, etc. I would actually use a Mustad 9674 hook for them and that would make it easier to add a bead or cone head. Moral of the story- think of the layout of that fly as a "platform" that you can adapt to all sorts of needs.

Being an aficionado of eccentric and eclectic flies I would say you should go for something close. Search your existing materials supply to see what you have that may get you into the ball park with size and color. I'm referring to the 'Big Black and Blue Spey Tube'.

The fly displayed on that link has been tied by someone having a great talent not only for tying spey style but he tubed it too. In order to produce a real copy you would need to do some shopping. The other two should be a snap to copy but the first one is looking a little more difficult.

Do you tie Bunny Fur Comets? Below is a picture of an Orange Bunny Comet. These work well here for all species of salmon and when the steelhead are fresh they will take them also. With the wide range of colors available from Hairline you can tie almost any combo that will work for you. Those eyes are zinc and provide the weight you may need sometimes. These are easy to tie and will probably look similar to the fly displayed in that link to the fish. Color will be your key.

This fly is orange but think in terms of black with silver doctor blue burnt spey hackle wound in with the bunny and a little black and blue krystal flash added;
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